Edward Nygma
}} Edward Nygma is a forensic scientist working for Gotham City Police Department with a penchant for speaking in rather cryptic language. Biography Early life Edward earned his degree at Gotham City University. Prior to the events of the show, he won the Whippleburn Prize for excellence in criminal science writing for an article titled "What’s Wrong With This Right? Preventing False Positives at Crime Scenes." He also authored other pieces for journals such as Evidence Quarterly, For Your Record and Post-Mortem Monthly.Whippleburn Prize Announced - Gotham Chronicle Working with the GCPD When Harvey Bullock and James Gordon are investigating the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Nygma presents information about the bullet recovered from Thomas Wayne's body in the form of a riddle, to which Bullock impatiently demands that he "tell" rather than "ask". Gordon, however, is willing to play along, and solves one of his riddles . Amidst other forensics work, Nygma helps elucidate the mechanism of action of the drug Viper, reacting to its gruesome effects with curiosity and fascination . He also begins to romantically pursue department archivist Kristen Kringle, angering her by reorganizing her filing system in an attempt to improve it. When Gordon is temporarily transferred to Arkham Asylum, Nygma gives him a goodbye hug, demonstrating how much the detective's friendliness means to him. He continues his attempts to woo Kristen, giving her a cupcake with a bullet in it and declaring that "it's a riddle." Kristen, finding it "menacing and weird and inedible," promptly returns it to him. Nygma later visits her in the records annex to explain what the gift was intended to represent--that "a beautiful woman is a dangerous thing"--but before Kristen can respond, Detective Arnold Flass appears and orders him to leave Kristen alone. Assuring her that he never meant to offend her, Nygma makes his way out, and happens to overhear Kristen thanking Flass and remarking on how weird Nygma is. Unwilling to give up just yet, Nygma makes a card for Kristen and writes a short poem inside. When he comes by later to see what she thought of it, he finds Flass and some of the other police officers mocking it. In spite of Kristen telling them to stop, they begin to tease him, and he leaves in embarrassment. Later, as he's in the laboratory "surgically removing the onions from his takeout", Kristen comes in to apologize for Flass' behavior, telling him that Flass happened to find the card in her desk and that she thought his card was "thoughtful." Encouraged, Nygma attempts to ask Kristen out, but she cuts him off and quickly makes her exit. Nygma smiles, murmuring to himself that "there's hope". Annoyed by the incompetence of the medical examiner, Dr. Guerra, Nygma takes to dissecting bodies without his permission. Guerra begs Essen to do something about Nygma's conduct, and when they next catch him with his hand inside a corpse, she suspends him. Nygma goes to the records room to tell Kristen and finds her crying. She hastily gathers herself, and he explains his situation to her, giving her back a pencil he'd taken from her desk--now reduced to a small stump. Kristen says that she's sorry to hear about his predicament and that she wishes something could be done. Getting an idea, Nygma sneaks back into the station later and breaks into the medical examiner's locker, placing severed limbs inside. Guerra is promptly fired after being found with the body parts in his possession. Reinstated out of necessity, Nygma returns to the annex to tell Kristen that he's back. As he's leaving, she stops him and declares that he owes her a new pencil. When Leslie Thompkins becomes the new medical examiner, Nygma develops a positive working relationship with her, remarking to Gordon that she's much better than her predecessor. Around the same time, he also has a chance meeting with Oswald Cobblepot, who stops by the station to speak to Gordon. Aware of who he is and intrigued by his presence, Nygma teases him, asking him whether he knew that "male emperor penguins keep their eggs warm by balancing them on their feet." Bewildered and unamused, Cobblepot asks who he is, then orders him to "keep moving." In "Everybody has a Cobblepot," Nygma accosts Kristen while she's picking up files from the laboratory. He attempts to flirt with her and brings up the subject of Detective Flass, who has recently been reinstated. "It's just that he's such a bad--" he begins, but Kristen cuts him off, placing a hand on his arm. She tells him that she appreciates his concern, but has realized that there are far better men in the world than Arnold Flass. Kristen leaves the room and, grinning goofily, Nygma grasps the part of his arm that she touched, certain that she'd finally returned his affections. As the day wraps up, Nygma approaches Kristen with a bouquet hidden behind his back and asks if she has any dinner plans. Startled and regretful, Kristen says that she does, and introduces Nygma to her new boyfriend, Officer Tom Dougherty. Nygma remains polite, managing to retain his composure as Tom asks him a riddle. He answers it easily, and Tom promises that he'll stump him next time. As the couple leave the GCPD, Kristen casts another sympathetic glance back at Nygma. Nygma looks down at his wilted bouquet, then, in a fit of heartbroken rage, tears it up and throws it into a garbage can. Some days later, Nygma walks in on Tom and Kristen kissing in the annex. After Tom leaves, he notices bruises on Kristen's arms, which she admits were Tom's doing. Kristen shrugs off Nygma's concern, not wanting him to get involved. Infuriated, Nygma confronts Tom himself. Tom asks Nygma if he's ever been with a woman before, and when Nygma says nothing Tom declares that sometimes women "need a firm hand." Nygma insists his behavior is wrong, and Tom asks him what he intends to do about it, again reducing him to silence. Undeterred, that night Nygma waits outside of Kristen's townhouse for Tom. When Tom shows up, he declares that he won't let Tom hurt Kristen any longer and tells him that he should leave Gotham. For the first time, Tom fully realizes that Nygma has a crush on Kristen. He punches Nygma in the stomach. Before he can land a second punch, Nygma impulsively draws a knife and stabs him. As he gapes in horror at what he's done, Tom grips him by the shoulder as though to knock him down again, and Nygma flies into a rage, stabbing him ten more times. Looking over Tom's dead body, Nygma gives a hysterical, terrified laugh, overwhelmed by the magnitude of what he's done. The following day, he returns to the GCPD with the now-dismembered corpse, intending to dispose of it in the morgue. As he prepares to dissolve the flesh from the bones, Kristen walks in to ask for some files back and recoils at the sight of the carnage. Nygma constructs a hasty lie, claiming that the body parts are from a victim that was sliced up in an industrial accident. Kristen says that she can't understand how Nygma is able to deal with those sorts of things on the job, and Nygma says "one must have a sense of humor." She asks him whether he's seen Tom around, and he tells her that he hasn't. To Kristen's surprise, he then quickly ushers her out. He debates his next move with Tom's bare skull before smashing it, wondering aloud whether he should write Kristen a note in Tom's name to explain Tom's sudden disappearance. He types one out and plays dumb when he finds Kristen reading it. Exasperated, Kristen asks herself why she "keeps picking creeps", and Nygma says that "sometimes with men you need to read between the lines". Kristen retorts that "sometimes with men, you need a drink". After she leaves, chuckling to himself a little, Nygma repositions the note, revealing that the first letters of each line spell "NYGMA" down the left margin. However, Kristen eventually notices Nygma's clue and becomes suspicious. When confronted, Nygma denies knowing anything and is left alone. The fear of being caught, along with the shame of leaving such an easy clue, drives Nygma to talk to himself. This reveals an even darker mental psychosis in Edward Nygma. Nygma's multiple personality disorder is shown more clearly in "Damned if You Do," where he is shown talking to himself in the mirror. While the "real" Ed is still his normal, awkward self, his reflection is relaxed, smooth-talking, and amoral. Personality Edward is intelligent, calculating, kind, and caring. His meticulous and observant nature makes him an excellent forensic scientist, often detecting clues and connections his superiors miss. However he is also narcissistic, being infatuated by his intelligence and enjoys telling riddles to prove this, much to the annoyance of most of his co-workers. He can also be awkward, unintentionally insulting, and selfish, like getting the previous medical examiner fired as revenge for getting him suspended by making it look like he was stealing body parts. He has romantic feelings for Kristen Kringle; when he discovered that her boyfriend, Tom Dougherty, was physically abusing her he threatened Tom to stay away from Kristen. However, when Tom attacked him he killed Tom in self-defense. Though he felt guilt and remorse for this he covered up the murder to avoid arrest and stay with Kristen. He is compelled to leave a riddle in the letter he wrote to Kristen to cover up Tom's death, but becomes angry with himself for leaving such an easy clue and suffers a further mental breakdown. Abilities *'Encyclopedic Knowledge:' Edward possesses a profound knowledge of anatomy and displays a wide-ranging command of esoterica from numerous fields. *'Skilled Lockpick User:' Edward has at least rudimentary lockpicking skills, since he successfully breaks into the Medical Examiner's locker. Appearances * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Season 2 * }} Trivia *Edward Nygma, his last name is sometimes spelled with an "i", (or Edward Nashton according to some writers) was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Dick Sprang and he first appeared in Detective Comics #140 (1948).[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddler Edward Nygma/Riddler at Wikipedia] The first time the character's origin was tied into the G.C.P.D. was in the video game Batman: Arkham Origins, where he is described as a police consultant and the apparent head of the Cybercrime unit. See Also *Edward Nygma on the DC Database. *[http://gothamchronicle.com/post/91970575376/whippleburn-prize-announced-gcpds-edward-nygma/ Whippleburn Prize Announced] at Gotham Chronicle. References Category:Characters from the comics Category:Antagonists Category:GCPD members